


Since Then

by telm_393



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Childhood Memories, Complicated Relationships, Gen, Light Angst, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-15 05:14:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21248027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/telm_393/pseuds/telm_393
Summary: Vanya and Five have a conversation about something that’s not really important.





	Since Then

**Author's Note:**

  * For [syrupwit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/syrupwit/gifts).

Vanya wakes up. She only knows it was a nightmare she woke up from because she can feel the scream caught in her throat. Other than that, she doesn't even remember the basics of what she was dreaming about, which makes her feel more disoriented than grateful. She curls onto her side and breathes in and out shakily. It’s four in the morning. She has a long day ahead of her.

She goes to get a drink of water and then wanders over to her living room. Maybe she’ll sleep better on the couch. There’s no reason she would, but it’s worth a shot.

She stops cold at the entrance to her living room, but she doesn’t startle. She only rolls her eyes at the intruder sitting in her armchair.

Looks like Five’s staying over again.

He prefers her apartment to the mansion, he tells her, and she understands. She prefers anywhere to that place.

She does wish he’d get around to actually mentioning he’s coming over when he does instead of showing up like a creep, but she was probably already asleep by the time he blinked in, and he knows by now that Vanya’s not going to protest or try to shoot him or something when she finds him in her home.

Five is drinking a cup of coffee, or…well, he’s staring down at a cup of coffee, gently moving the mug from side to side. Vanya assumes it’s to watch the liquid sloshing around, but she can’t be sure. She can’t be sure of anything when it comes to Five, not anymore.

She walks over to sit on the couch, stepping lightly. She feels distinctly Victorian, wandering around in the dark. All she needs is a flowing nightgown and a candelabra.

She doesn’t turn on the light. It’s easier to be in the dark together.

“You should sleep,” she says. Her voice comes out soft and hesitant. She wonders if she should tack a “please” onto the statement, but banishes the thought.

Five doesn’t respond right away, but eventually he does. He always does. He usually does. Sometimes he does. “I’m not tired.”

“You look tired.” The dark circles under his eyes are impressive. They make him look older, or maybe just like a fourteen-year-old who’s stayed up one night too many.

Five rolls his eyes. “Thanks.”

“I tell ‘em like I see ‘em,” Vanya says. It’s an attempt at a joke. Something Klaus would say. It doesn’t sound like her.

“I don’t feel like sleeping,” Five tells her.

Vanya nods. She doesn’t push it, because it would be kind of hypocritical, considering that she can’t sleep either.

It’s strange to be with Five, because he’s so familiar and so far away at the same time. He’s years away, somewhere between now and all those decades they spent apart, and for a moment, Vanya feels a surge of panic, like she doesn’t know who she’s with.

Vanya chases a memory, desperate for something, anything she and the stranger sitting in front of her, who she loves more than anyone else, share. “Remember how, when we were little, Luther had those nightmares?”

Five’s brow furrows. He doesn’t know where she’s going with this, but she’s sure he’s willing to follow. She hopes, at least, and she’s right to hope, because his face softens. “The monsters,” he murmurs. “He thought there were monsters in the dark, but was too afraid to tell the others because...”

Five trails off. He does that sometimes.

Vanya picks up his train of thought. “He thought Diego and Klaus would laugh at him, and he wanted to be strong for Allison, and he was afraid to hurt Ben’s feelings because Ben was...he was full of monsters. Even though Luther’s monster was different. He thought you’d make fun of him too. That’s why he asked me to check his room after he had nightmares.”

“But we were together so often that eventually he ran into me too.”

“He’d already been coming by for my help for a while, though.” Vanya feels her lips quirk into a bittersweet smile. She probably shouldn’t smile. Those dreams tortured Luther, and she’s sure they’re not fond memories of his, but the first time he went to her room and asked her to help him she felt so happy she almost cried. It was the first time she felt she wasn’t useless to him. “And they weren’t _monsters_, plural. Remember?”

_Please remember._

Vanya knows that Five’s memory isn't...good anymore, not exactly, that it’s different like the rest of him, but the idea that he can’t remember things they went through together makes her heart break. She knows thirteen years are just a drop in the ocean compared to forty-five, but he's still her brother. All she wants is to still be his sister too.

Five snorts. “You’re right. It was just one.”

“I’m pretty sure Luther started having those dreams after he read about the Sphinx,” Vanya muses. "The Lullaby Man."

“The Lullaby Man, of course. What was he? Half man, half lizard?”

Vanya rolls her eyes. “I know you remember.” _Please remember._

Five smirks. “Half man, half vulture. Wings and all.”

“I think it was mostly human other than the wings. And creepy, what, blood red eyes with no whites or pupils? He was really upset about the pupils.”

“Vultures have pupils.”

Vanya laughs. “Luther was six years old, what’d he know?”

“I knew vultures had pupils at six.”

“You said you knew everything at six.”

“I didn’t,” Five says. “Naturally.” He takes a sip of his coffee. “I know everything now.”

Vanya smiles. “Right.” They fall into silence again, but it’s companionable this time, and she doesn’t feel awkward when she starts talking again. “Luther told me all about him. The Lullaby Man. He asked riddles Luther didn’t know how to answer and said he’d...” She trails off. Her heart aches. When Five looks up at her for just a second, it’s with sympathy.

“He’d end the world if Luther didn’t get them right,” Five finishes. He was always finishing her sentences when they were kids, but this is the first time he’s had the chance to do it in a while. They’ve changed.

Vanya lets slip a shadow of a laugh. “And Luther went to me to make sure this...world-ending monster wouldn’t cause the apocalypse.” She shakes her head. “Fuck,” she mutters to herself. “That was a long time ago.”

Five’s eyes cloud over. Of course. Whenever Vanya says the right thing, she always follows it up with the wrong one, and what did she even expect? Reminiscing about their childhood isn’t exactly conducive to any kind of happiness, ever. It’s just all they have.

Hopefully someday they’ll have been adults together for longer than they were kids together, and they’ll have memories that aren’t wrapped up in the Hell that was the Umbrella Academy, but for now it’s all they’ve got. Things that happened a long time ago.

Five murmurs, “It was a lifetime ago.”

A lifetime since Luther came into her room without knocking, wringing his hands, an electrode still stuck to his forehead, and told her he needed her to look for the Lullaby Man. A lifetime since his face reddened and his eyes widened when he saw Five sitting on the floor with her. A lifetime since Vanya told Five to be nice while Luther earnestly explained the issue. A lifetime since Five, humoring someone for once, blinked through the whole house just to make sure the Lullaby Man wasn’t there. A lifetime since Five explained to Luther that dreams meant nothing.

A lifetime since Luther stopped coming to Vanya afraid.

(She never stopped missing him.)

Five lifts his head to meet Vanya’s eyes, and they stare at each other. They study each other, try to figure each other out even though it’s too tall an order this early in the morning. They’re not friends, and they’re not strangers. They’re just brother and sister, trying to figure out what they’re supposed to do now, and the Lullaby Man doesn’t matter anymore.

It’s been a lifetime since he did.


End file.
